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Monday, November 19, 2012

Allen West Gets Recount After All (UPDATE: Board Misses Deadline)

For more incompetence or willful negligence in Florida: St Lucie County Canvassing Board missed the noon deadline for an Allen West recount. Legal Insurrection has the lowdown on the whole timeline.

But the West camp is still not giving up. The left are skewering West for pursuing the issue, but we all know that had it been the reverse, Murphy would be doing the same thing and no-one would be criticizing.

Great news for Congressman Allen West, though I'm sure Democrat Patrick Murphy and Florida liberals will be livid!

After being told there would be no recount by Circuit Court Judge Dan Vaughn for Florida's disputed District 18 early votes, a canvassing board voted 2-1 to start the process yesterday on the 37,379 early voting ballots that some have said were possibly double counted and/or ignored.

Whether it was voter fraud or gross incompetence (which seems the more likely scenario) West should not have had to press for a recount given the fact that there were grave doubts. Even the media admitted as much- see video below.

Even if West doesn't win after all this, at least it will put the doubts to rest. It just seems odd that West was announced the winner and then within a short period of time he suddenly lost by fewer than 2,000 votes.

"We are pleased the Canvassing Board has done the right thing for the voters of St Lucie County by agreeing to a retabulation of early votes," said West in a press release. "All we have been fighting for since the very beginning is to ensure the citizens of this county have their votes accurately and fairly counted."

By early Saturday morning, Murphy's legal team sought an injunction in circuit court to stop the recount.

Shortly before 10 a.m. Murphy lawyer Liz Powers told the canvassing board of the action but county attorneys had not received word. The recount began shortly after 10 a.m.

West fired back at Murphy, issuing a statement:

"In a last-ditch effort to suppress the vote, Murphy's lawyers submitted sloppy and incomplete papers to the Court this morning to try to strong-arm the judge into preventing today's retabulation already underway. The Murphy team's motion is procedurally and substantively lacking. With every action attempted, Murphy demonstrates a complete lace of respect and utter disregard for the voters of St. Lucie County.

"Murphy's efforts bring to mind the dark times in our nation's history when politicians tried to manipulate the law to suppress the votes, and we are appalled by Murphy's apparent contempt for the voting rights of citizens to have their ballots accurately and fairly tabulated."

I'm glad they made the right decision. It will be interesting to see who actually won, that is, if there are no shenanigans during the recount. I hope there are are enough observers to make sure this time that things are done right.